Families with Children Workgroup

Workgroup Description:
The Reaching Home Campaign Families with Children (FWC) workgroup is working to prevent and end family homelessness by the end of 2020 by strengthening systems to support families experiencing or at risk of homelessness. Families become homeless for a variety of reasons, such as inability to afford housing, loss of employment, childcare cost, domestic violence, health crises, or other event that cause economic instability.

The workgroup aims are to help families obtain permanent housing as quickly as possible and to coordinate with our federal, state, and local partners to ensure that families have access to services that enable them to remain housed, become self-sufficient, and promote optional health and development of children.

Workgroup Goals
The FWC workgroup embarked on a yearlong strategic planning process and has identified over 40 strategies to address the needs of families who are experiencing or at risk of becoming homeless. This plan includes strategies across a broad framework to address family homelessness and encompasses five key elements:

Aligning and targeting existing services and resources to better support the housing stability of families experiencing or at risk of homelessness.

Developing better connections between homeless assistance providers and programs that offer high quality care and education, child health and development, employment services, and other supports for families with children facing homelessness.

Advancing strategies to support income growth and livable wage.

Identifying and developing a plan to address the specific needs of young parents experiencing homelessness.

Improving access to services for behavioral, physical, and mental health to reduce family and child stress and trauma.